OTTAWA — The Senate is poised to take its first step toward answering a question that has hung over it for years: Is everyone who sits in the chamber truly eligible to be there?

Debate is to begin Thursday on a Liberal proposal to create a special committee to wade into the Constitution and better define its requirement that senators actually be residents of the provinces they represent.

That requirement has not been redefined in decades, but has come under scrutiny after housing-expense audits revealed Sen. Mike Duffy spent only one-third of his time in Prince Edward Island, the province he represents.

Some experts say the question shouldn’t be all that difficult to resolve. When senators make expense claims for secondary housing in the nation’s capital, they have to produce a health card, driver’s licence, voting card and tax return bearing the address of the main residence they keep in their home province. These documents are precisely the tools that could be used to establish residency for the purposes of determining whether someone can represent a particular province, experts suggest.

Currently – and perhaps surprisingly – the only test of official residency is a declaration senators sign at the start of each new Parliament, in which they swear to being residents of their respective provinces.

The Liberals, who make up the opposition in the Senate, are asking that the committee submit a final report by Oct. 31, 2013.

Their motion comes as controversy swirls around some senators’ expense claims. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright was forced to resign after he wrote a $90,000 personal cheque to Duffy to help him repay his housing expenses.

In London Wednesday as part of an eight-day European trip, Harper told reporters he had “nothing more to say” on the Senate affair.

“Mr. Wright is speaking to the (federal) ethics commissioner and he will be accountable for his actions to the commissioner. And beyond that, I have nothing more to say on the matter,” Harper said.

In addition, Canada’s federal auditor general says he may have to look at the spending of every senator to ensure no possible misspending is missed.

Michael Ferguson said Tuesday night his audit will decide in the coming weeks on the scope of a sweeping audit of Senate spending where auditors will be able to look at whatever and whomever they like, including each of Canada’s current 102 senators.

“We have to determine if we want to look at each senator,” Ferguson told senators on the internal economy committee.

Senators were told that if auditors find problems with individual senator’s expense claims, they will go looking for answers.

“If there’s an issue with something — we need to get an explanation,” Ferguson told reporters after the meeting. “There would be nothing that would be a secret to an individual senator.”

And whatever the auditor general finds will be put into what could be several reports over the coming months as the politically sensitive audit gets underway. Auditors could also make several recommendations if they find problems with financial and administrative oversight, Ferguson said.

Ferguson’s meeting with senators came on a tumultuous day for the upper chamber as reports surfaced that senators were concerned about the expense claims of senators Pamela Wallin and Duffy earlier than reported, and as the senator in charge of the internal economy committee announced he was stepping down as chairman, citing his health.

The pressure on Duffy to repay about $90,000 in housing expense claims started months before he talked one-on-one with Harper at a February caucus meeting where Harper told Duffy to repay the money.

Two sources say that during a Senate caucus meeting late last year, Tory senators urged Duffy to repay the housing expenses when they were first brought to light. At least one person in the room during the December meeting — sources wouldn’t say who — openly told Duffy he should resign.

Since then, Duffy has resigned from the Conservative caucus, his expense claims have been sent to the RCMP for review, and questions remain about a personal cheque Harper’s former chief of staff wrote to Duffy to help cover the cost of repayment.

With files from Jason Fekete, Postmedia News

Text of the motion:

That a Special Committee on the Residency Requirements for Senators be appointed to consider the constitutional requirement of Senators to reside in their province or territory of appointment, and in particular the meaning of the term Residence” for the purposes of section 31(5) and the term resident in the Province” for the purposes of section 23(5) of the Constitution Act, 1867;

That the committee be composed of nine members, to be nominated by the Committee of Selection and that four members constitute a quorum;

That, the committee have power to send for persons, papers and records; to examine witnesses; and to print such papers and evidence from day-to-day as may be ordered by the committee;

That, notwithstanding rule 12-18(2)(b)(i), the committee have power to sit from Monday to Friday, even though the Senate may then be adjourned for a period exceeding one week;

That the committee have power to retain the services of professional, clerical, stenographic and such other staff as deemed advisable by the committee; and

That the committee be empowered to report from time to time and to submit its final report no later than October 31, 2013.